This objection is built on distortion.

The narrations do not mean women are of lesser worth, lesser humanity, or inherently stupid. The hadiths must be read together with the explanations of the Prophet ﷺ, the Qur’an, the commentaries of the scholars, and the actual role of women in Islamic knowledge.

“I looked into Paradise and saw a majority of its people were poor. I looked into Hellfire and saw a majority of its people were women.”

Source: Sahih Muslim 2737
Grade: Sahih

The false claim is that women are a majority in Hellfire because they are less pious, less valuable, or spiritually inferior to men.

“Women are a minority in Paradise, meaning at the beginning of the matter before the sinful among them are removed from Hellfire. There is no evidence in this tradition that the women of the earth are less than men in Paradise.”

Source: Fayd al-Qadir 2/428

The initial vision of Paradise or Hellfire does not necessarily describe the final, permanent, post-intercession population distribution.

“It is possible the narrator related the tradition by the meaning he understood: that if they make up the majority of residents in Hellfire, they must be the minority of residents in Paradise. That is not necessarily so, as I mentioned previously.”

Source: Fath al-Bari 6/325

Ibn Hajar explicitly rejects that as a necessary conclusion.

إِنَّ أَوَّلَ زُمْرَةٍ تَدْخُلُ الْجَنَّةَ عَلَى صُورَةِ الْقَمَرِ لَيْلَةَ الْبَدْرِ وَالَّتِي تَلِيهَا عَلَى أَضْوَإِ كَوْكَبٍ دُرِّيٍّ فِي السَّمَاءِ لِكُلِّ امْرِئٍ مِنْهُمْ زَوْجَتَانِ اثْنَتَانِ يُرَى مُخُّ سُوقِهِمَا مِنْ وَرَاءِ اللَّحْمِ وَمَا فِي الْجَنَّةِ أَعْزَبُ

“Verily, the first group to enter Paradise will have faces as bright as the full moon at night. The next group will have faces as bright as shining stars in the sky. Every man will have two wives, and the marrow of their shanks would glimmer beneath their skin, and there will be no one in Paradise without a wife.”

Source: Sahih Muslim 2834
Grade: Sahih

This shows that the issue is not as simplistic as critics pretend.

“This tradition demonstrates that women are the majority of the people of Paradise, and in another tradition that they are a majority of the people of Hellfire. What can be deduced from them together is that women are the majority of the children of Adam.”

Source: Sharh al-Nawawi ‘ala Sahih Muslim 2834

Source: Fath al-Bari 6/325

Rather, the narrations together show that women are numerically abundant in both Paradise and Hellfire.

“There will be an abundance of women and scarcity of men such that fifty women will be maintained by a single man.”

Source: Sahih al-Bukhari 81
Grade: Muttafaqun ‘alayhi

Source: Sahih al-Bukhari 1348
Grade: Muttafaqun ‘alayhi

Other narrations indicate women are also numerous in Paradise.

“Islam says women are stupid and religiously worthless.”

The point is that critics abuse the English word as if it means women are inherently stupid.

The hadith itself does not allow that reading.

The women replied in the affirmative.

He said:

“This is the reduction in her religion.”

It refers to a reduction in religious performance due to Allah’s law, not a defect in a woman’s faith or worth.

The women replied in the affirmative.

He said:

“This is the reduction in her intellect.”

It is about testimony in a legal context.

It is not saying women are stupid.

Qur’an 2:282

The Prophet ﷺ explained this by his statement:

“The testimony of a woman is half the testimony of a man.”

Meaning that the testimony of one man equals the testimony of two women.

But is this a defect in their innate nature?

The answer: No. It is neither an innate defect nor a deficiency.

Reference: Fath al-Bari bi-Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 1, Page 72

For your info: This scan explains that “deficiency in intellect” does not refer to the basic intellect that distinguishes sanity from insanity. Rather, it refers to precision, retention, and accuracy in the legal matter of testimony. The highlighted explanation stresses that this is not an innate defect in women’s nature. It also notes that women’s testimony can be sufficient in areas such as breastfeeding, childbirth, and religious transmission, which proves the hadith is not unrestricted or general.

It was said: it is knowledge.

Others said: it is understanding.

Others said: it is the faculty by which necessary knowledge is grasped.

It was also said: it is a disposition by which one is prepared to accept knowledge.

All of these statements are close in meaning.

What is intended here is not the essence of intellect itself, but rather what relates to accuracy in perception and precision in retention.

Hence, forgetfulness and heedlessness occur, and this does not negate the existence of intellect, just as deficiency in actions does not negate the existence of faith.

“The Prophet ﷺ described women as deficient in intellect, meaning in testimony.”

The meaning of his statement ﷺ is that her forgetfulness is more likely, so another woman is joined to her to remind her if she forgets.

Thus, the deficiency refers to precision in testimony, not to the essence of intellect, nor to religion in its foundation.

Reference: Fath al-Bari bi-Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 1, Pages 67–68

For your info: This scan clarifies the technical meaning of ‘aql in the hadith. It explains that the intended deficiency is not the essence of intellect itself, but what relates to accuracy in perception and retention. It also cites the explanation attributed to Imam al-Bukhari: the deficiency is in testimony. This matters because the critic’s claim that Islam calls women stupid is directly contradicted by the scholarly explanation.

This is because her testimony is made half that of a man due to the likelihood of forgetfulness, so another woman is joined to her to remind her if she forgets, as Allah Most High said:

“So that if one of them forgets, the other may remind her.”

Qur’an 2:282

Thus, her intellect itself is not deficient, but rather her precision in this specific context; and this is why this applies in testimony and not in other matters.

Reference: Fath al-Bari bi-Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 1, Page 49

For your info: This scan explicitly states that the deficiency is in precision, not innate intelligence. It links the matter to Qur’an 2:282, where the second woman reminds the first if she forgets. This is one of the strongest evidences in the article because it directly blocks the polemical claim that the hadith means women are intellectually inferior in every sense.

Women’s testimony may be accepted independently in matters where women have direct knowledge.

Reference: Majmu‘ al-Fatawa 6/447

The hadith is not about absolute intelligence rankings.

For your info: This scan includes the statement attributed to Ibn Taymiyyah that there are women more intelligent than many men. It also discusses testimony and mental capacity, showing that the legal issue of testimony cannot be twisted into a claim that all women are stupid. The scan is used to refute the absolute and unrestricted interpretation of the hadith.

Otherwise, if it is feared that she will forget or misremember, she is strengthened with another like herself.

That makes them stronger than a single man or the likes of him.

There is no question that the benefit of the doubt given to the testimony of Umm al-Darda’ and Umm ‘Atiyyah is stronger than the benefit of the doubt given to a single man without them or the likes of them.

Reference: al-Turuq al-Hukmiyyah 1/136

Women are equal to men in truthfulness, honesty, and piety.

The legal issue concerns safeguarding testimony in specific contexts, not declaring women morally or intellectually inferior.

If the Prophet ﷺ truly believed women were inherently stupid, then why was his wife Aishah رضي الله عنها one of the greatest scholars of Islam?

For your info: This scan presents reports about the scholarly authority of Aishah رضي الله عنها. It shows that the Companions returned to her when they were uncertain about narrations or legal questions. This directly disproves the idea that women were treated as intellectually worthless in Islam.

For your info: This scan continues the evidence for Aishah’s knowledge. It mentions her expertise in inheritance law, fiqh, poetry, and religious understanding. The point is simple: if the hadith meant women are stupid, then the Companions would not have relied on Aishah رضي الله عنها as a major authority of Islamic knowledge.

The Islamic tradition did not treat women as incapable of scholarship.

Reference: Mizan al-I‘tidal 4/604

They were either reliable or unknown, never dishonest.

By contrast, male narrators were regularly critiqued. Many were labeled liars, weak, abandoned, or unreliable, showing that criticism was based on evidence, not gender.

For your info: This scan cites al-Dhahabi’s statement that he does not know of any female narrator accused of lying or abandoned in hadith transmission. This is a powerful historical point: women were trusted as transmitters of religious knowledge, and hadith criticism did not reject them merely because they were women. This refutes the claim that the hadith of “deficiency” means women were considered unreliable, dishonest, or intellectually worthless.

Other narrations indicate women are also numerous in Paradise.

Al-Munawi explains that the minority-in-Paradise report refers to the beginning, before sinful women are removed from Hellfire.

Ibn Hajar notes that the claim that women are fewer in Paradise may be a narrator’s inference, not a necessary prophetic wording.

Al-Qadi Iyad reconciles the narrations by saying women are numerically abundant among the children of Adam.

The hadith of “deficient in intellect and religion” does not mean women are stupid.

The Prophet ﷺ himself explained reduction in religion as reduced obligations during menses, and reduction in intellect as the specific legal issue of testimony.

Fath al-Bari explains that the deficiency is about precision in testimony, not innate intelligence.

Ibn Taymiyyah said there are women more intelligent than many men.

Ibn al-Qayyim stated that women are equal to men in truthfulness, honesty, and piety.

Aishah رضي الله عنها was one of the greatest scholars of Islam.

Al-Dhahabi stated that he knew of no female hadith narrator accused of lying or abandoned.

Therefore, the accusation is not an argument.

It is a distortion built on selective quotation and bad reading.